In the construction industry, maintaining the strength of load bearing support members is a key consideration. Throughout the World, steel and concrete structures are exposed to harsh environmental and working conditions. Steel, concrete, and other common materials may be damaged and deteriorate from being exposed to harsh environmental conditions or rough working conditions. For example, concrete may experience spalling or cracking and steel may corrode from being exposed to the environment. Additionally, concrete, steel, and other materials also may experience wear and impacts by foreign objects as a function of their use in applications where rough working conditions are experienced. In the mining industry, for example, a stockpile cover in a gold mine is impacted with rocks and other abrasive materials, thus maintaining the strength of load bearing support members of the stockpile cover is a key consideration. The need for maintenance of the strength of load bearing support members is common in numerous other structural applications. Corrosion, abrasion, and other environmental conditions may cause holes, a reduction in thickness, or other damage and wear that reduce the strength and efficacy of the support members.
Existing encasement, wrapping, or jacket-type support member protection solutions in the industry address ductility or axial capacity of a support member via confinement or protection against future corrosion. For example, the use of a glass or carbon fiber composite wrapped around a concrete column. The fiberglass composite thus provides reinforcement and improves the axial capacity of short columns and eliminates the brittle failure mode of the concrete by confinement. However, existing jacket-type support member protection systems offer no lightweight solution to address stability or buckling capacity of a support member, especially long structural members where design capacity is controlled by buckling. Additionally, existing solutions are often non-structural and merely serve as a protective barrier for a damaged support member.
Thus, there is a continual need for methods and systems which reinstate the structural capacity and protect deteriorated support members as well as offer solutions to address stability and buckling capacity of a support member.